Medical images are acquired from X-ray, computerized tomography(CT), magnetic resonance imaging(MRI), ultrasonic, etc., and different apparatus is used according to the part of a body or the object of observation. Medical images have an advantage of observing inside of a body without cutting a body open, and widely used for deciding a schedule or a method of a diagnosis, treatment and an operation. Additional information about such medical images should be supplied to those who analyzes and diagnoses such medical images for an objective decision. Employing computerized digital image processing method, such additional information, which enables quicker and more accurate analysis and diagnosis, can be supplied to medical people. These medical image processing techniques are growing rapidly and widespread, and more efficient and accurate processing techniques are being developed.
To acquire desired data from an image, numerous processing steps are required. Methods developed to have new algorithms based on medical expert knowledge should be applied instead of using the conventional image processing methods, for medical images have their unique features. These new algorithms have been developed to be operated by text commands on workstations with UNIX operating systems. Therefore, expert knowledge about image processing and UNIX computer systems was required in order to operate a conventional medical image processing system. Moreover, conventional image processing systems have been developed to deal with ordinary digital image processing. However, conventional image processing systems are inefficient to deal with medical images because medical images need different image processing methods from those applied to ordinary images. The number of medical images for diagnosis or treatment is so enormous that using conventional image processing systems requires too long processing time and too much operating efforts. There have been difficulties for those who have little knowledge about image processing to acquire desired data from conventional image processing systems.